[South40]

That said, I don't know how people ever got the idea that enslaving others was acceptable.

I understand what you mean. Many whites did not see blacks as human, to them they were animals. So whites worked them w/o pay just as they would work their other animals. That may come close to explaining how and why whites did it, but we know there were many black slave owners also. I doubt they too did not see blacks as human, so what was their excuse? Greed?

[aquila48]

And whites had white slaves (Romans, and others), and I’m sure Chinese had Chinese slaves. It isn’t a question of race - it’s a question of power. Might makes right.